Editor's Note: Elmer Decker's History of Knox County, Kentucky remains one of the primary sources for research on the old Boone Trace. Decker lived from 1892 to 1952 and wrote this history around 1939-1941. The following excerpt about the Boone Trace through Knox County was copied from Decker's original typescript which was given to the Knox Historical Museum by his widow, Lois Decker Lyons.

In 1775 Daniel Boone was employed by Richard Henderson, of the Transylvania Company, to mark out a road from the settlements on the Watauga through the wilderness to Kentucky. The Transylvania Company had purchased the lands claimed by the Cherokees in Kentucky and Tennessee, March 17, 1775, by the Treaty of Watauga.

Again early maps and failure to investigate Knox County records, have led historians astray. It can be stated authoritatively that the Boone Trace did not go up the middle fork of Richland Creek, and that it crossed Raccoon Creek in now Laurel County.

The following order, deed and affidavits recorded in the Knox County Court Clerk's office are quoted to show the exact route.
"February 1, 1802. We, Jacob Grindstaff, Robert McWhorter and George Bunch have viewed the road from the town of Barbourville to intersect the State Road and think it the nearest and best way to cross Little Richland below the cow ford, to go by said McWhorter's, to cross at the ford on Big Richland, And so Along the Old Trace, and to recross Big Richland at Logan's Ford, And to Follow The Trace, up to Logan's old place as near as the ground will admit of."

This proves conclusively, when supported by the calls in a deed from Jacob Myers to Joel Collins, the younger, dated July 12,1795, and recorded in the office of the County Court Clerk of Lincoln County, which located the Trace that leads from the Kentucky to the Settlement of the Holston on the west side of Big Richland; between the mouth of Little Richland and the bend at Bailey's (Logan's Ford) there that Boone went up the west side of Big Richland Creek.

It must be noted that the Road order, quoted above, is rather misleading to one unfamiliar with the names used by early Knox County lawyers and surveyors to describe the Boone Trace. When the names Old Trace and Old Wilderness Road were used in an instrument the Boone Trace was almost invariably the route referred to. On the contrary, when just Trace was used, it generally meant another route, unless applied to water courses. However, if trace was used in a deed prior to the opening of the Old State Road to traffic in 1796, and the road referred to parallel the approximate route of Boone, then his trace (the Old Trace) is meant. This is also true as to the use of Old Wilderness Road and Wilderness Road. It must be remembered the Old State Road was called the Wilderness Road.

In 1805 John Ballinger and James Johnson, Commissioners, deeded to William Barlow a tract of land bounded as follows:

"Beginning at a White Oak and Black Oak Trees, thence N. 48 degrees, W. 180 poles to a main fork of Richland Creek and the Old Wilderness Road, in all 702 poles to a black gum, dogwood and hickory on the top of the ridge, thence S. 42 degrees, W. 90 poles to the middle fork of Richland, 215 poles to another fork, 450 poles to The Old Wilderness Road and another fork of said creek."

Modern map makers show the "main fork of Richland", mentioned above, as the Middle Fork, which is erroneous. Middle Fork was only a branch of the Main Fork, which heads up at Gillum [sic, Gilliam] Hill and flows into Big Richland at Bailey's. The Middle Fork flows into the Main Fork just above Campbell's store and filling station on U.S. 25E. Present day map makers have erred in thinking old timers would call the west fork of a stream the middle fork, one prong of which heads up near Knox's Fork, and the other near Lynn Camp waters. Certainly John Ballinger, first Knox County Surveyor and a deputy surveyor of Lincoln County before Knox was established would have known the proper names to apply to the different branches. As he names the streams in the deed, cited above, the Middle Fork is in the middle. There are branches on either side of it. Whether this be true or not, Boone did not go north around Gillum [sic, Gilliam] Hill. He went over Tunnel Hill.

The tract conveyed by Ballinger and Johnson includes parts of surveys and entries to James Barbour and Doctor Derosal, 1787, Nehemiah Rossel to Joseph Denny, 1793, Nehemiah Rossel to George Marshall, 1795-96 and others. The dates of the transfers were before the Old State Road was first thrown open to traffic in 1795. Thus it can be determined Boone Trace is the route meant in the said deed.

To show that the Boone Trace is the route mentioned in the last deed, quoted above, the following assignment is cited:

"I do hereby assign all my right and title of an equal 1000 acres of land unto George Marshall, being an equal 1000 acres of land and water out of an entry of 800, entry being and lying on the waters of Cumberland River above the Trace that I bought of James Barbour. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the 20th day of April, 1795.
Test Stephen Rossel

(Signed) Nehemiah Rossell

A Copy Test John Adair."

Therefore, the Boone Trace continued on the west side of the main fork to Tunnel Hill Fork, which is the fork described as "450 poles to the Old Wilderness Road and another fork of said creek." The fork described as "215 poles to another fork" is the Owens Branch. The distances mentioned are correct when the deed is plated, or super-imposed on an accurate map of Knox County. Tunnel Hill Fork heads up at the L.& N. Railroad tunnel hill, sometimes called Emanuel Hill.

Boone continued up Tunnel Hill Fork and over a water divide to about one quarter of a mile from Rossland, from thence to the Corbin-Barbourville Pike and across at a distance of about one mile from the top of Gillum [sic, Gilliam] Hill and the head waters of Lynn Camp Creek (besides Parker's Store) and from thence over the head waters of Lynn Camp Creek via Sam Black's and north of Grays to the Laurel County Line.

In 1844 Parks D. Brittain bought from William Hays and others a tract of land north of Grays and on the waters of Lynn Camp Creek, bounded as follows:
"Beginning at the back line of the Gillespie Patent of 4,064 acres near to the Scofield house at the distance of from 60 to 100 yards on the south or southeast side thereof on a white oak marked by us as supposed to be in said line, thence along a marked line to a spotted oak on the side of the Old Trace about 200 yards northwest of my cleared land..."

Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote of a trip made in 1793, "we fed on the banks of Cumberland River, and kept up the head of Richlands." Undoubtedly, he refers to Big and Little Richlands. The Main Fork is a mere drain compared to either of the other two streams. It has always been known as a fork, not as a creek, whereas the other two have, from the earliest time, been known by their present names. And it must be noted that the Middle Fork was called for in the deed from John Ballinger and James Johnson, Commissioners, to William Harlow [or Barlow] and no mention was made of either the Boone Trace or Old State Road.

However, Bishop Asbury apparently left the Boone Trace at Beech Hill, went up and over the head waters of Little Richland and Goose Creeks to a gap, through it and down Shop Branch to Big Richland, using what was to be later known as "the Old State Road cutoff" and up Knox's Fork into Laurel County. Just when this change in the original route was made is not known. That is [sic, it] was made seems fairly certain. And the Bishop "kept up the head of Richlands" by using it. A short cut, it lessened the distance approximately ten miles, and elderly people living along the changed route are honest in believing it the Boone Trace.

Most of the early explorers, travelers and settlers, who left records, write confusingly about Richland Creeks. Even our county orders, to casual readers, are not clear. In laying off Constable Precincts in 1807 the following appears:
"For Samuel Prewet's bounds, as follows, to with, beginning at Boone's old camp on Richland Creek, and running up the said creek so as to include all the settlers on said creeks, and all settlements to be made hereafter on said creeks."

Certainly pioneers knew the two creeks by separate names, but for brevity used the name in its singular form.

Just where "Boone's old camp" on Richland Creek was is problematical. The Old Trace first strikes Richland waters at the top of the water divide between Trace Branch of Fighting Creek and Trace Branch of Little Richland Creek. At that point there is not a suitable place for a camp. There are no fit places at its mouth near Beech Hill. In times of high water the lowlands around the hill are flooded for miles. The first places which, it seem, would have appealed to a pioneer surveyor and Indian fighter like Boone is the low hill above Camp Courtesy, near the junction of U.S. 25E and the Barbourville road. Such a strategic point would have commanded the approaches up both streams, rendering surprise attacks by Indians almost impossible.

Relative to the Boone Trace crossing Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek in now Laurel County, John Farris and John Arthur, in an apparent attempt to establish a land boundary, made the following affidavits, dated November 29,1813:
John Farris, of lawful age, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that as early as the year 1781, and ever since, he has been well acquainted with Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek, on which Edward Cathers lives, from whose house we have just proceeded, that the Old Wilderness Trace formerly crossed said creek, and that it has been ever since he knew it a creek well known, and so far as his knowledge extends, universally called Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek; this deponent further says that he as [sic, has] been, during the said length of time well acquainted with Rockcastle into which Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek empties, that this stream, was also well known and universally called, to the best of his knowledge, by the name of Rockcastle.

(signed) John Farris

John Arthur, being first duly sworn, deposeth and saith that his acquaintance with Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek, on which Edward Cathers lives, and Rockcastle into which said creek empties, commenced as early as the year 1771, and that as to his impressions as to those streams having been well known and universally called, to the best of his knowledge, the one by the Rackoon [sic, Raccoon] Creek and the other Rockcastle is the same as that of John Farris, whose deposition he has heard read, with this difference, that he has been longer acquainted with those streams than said Farris, as before stated, this deponent further says as to his knowledge the Wilderness Trace crossing from Cumberland Gap to the Crab Orchard crossed both those streams as early as 1779.

(signed) John Arthur

If the road from Cumberland Gap to Crab Orchard crossed Raccoon Creek the Boone Trace did also. The two routes diverged at Hazel Patch, Laurel County.

Mary Verhoeff says:

The trace marked by Boone led from the Watauga River in East Tennessee (Sycamore Shoals, Carter County) by way of Long Island to Moccasin Gap near Gate City, where it met the Big Road from Philadelphia and Richmond, and extended along the old trail to Powell Valley, through which it passed to Cumberland Gap. From here Boone followed the Warrior's Path across the ford of the Cumberland, just below Pineville Gap, and down the Cumberland to Flat Lick. At this place he left the main trail and took the old Buffalo Trace, which led cross country to the Hazel Patch near Rockcastle River, and then continued up Roundstone Creek to a gap in Big Hill (Boone's Gap, two miles southeast of Berea) and on to Otter Creek and the Kentucky River, where Fort Boonesborough was built, near what is now Ford in Madison County.

Daniel Boone entered Kentucky through Cumberland Gap, and traveled a N. 81 W. course, crossing Little Yellow Creek twice, to Big Yellow Creek and across; thence to and over the Log Mountains and across Clear Creek to Cumberland Ford; thence across and down the river to Flat Lick (from Cumberland Gap to Old Flat Lick he had followed the Warrior's Path); thence, leaving the Warrior's Path around Culton Hill to the present road (U.S. 25E) at Evergreen; thence with said road generally to Trace Branch of Fighting Creek; thence up the same and over the water divide to Trace Branch of Little Richland Creek; thence down the same and Little Richland Creek to Heidrick and across; thence to the present road (U.S. 25 E.) near the junction of the Barbourville road on the north side; thence with the same to the old ford of Big Richland Creek north of the rock dwelling of Walter Evans and across; thence up Big Richland Creek, past Bailey's (Logan's old ford) to the mouth of the Main Fork; thence up the Main Fork to the mouth of Tunnel Hill Fork; thence up said fork and over a water divide to about one-quarter of a mile south of Rossland; thence to and across U.S 25 E. at Parker's store, about one mile from the top of Gillum [sic, Gilliam] Hill and the headwaters of Lynn Camp Creek; from thence via Sam Black's home and north of Grays to the present Laurel County line, from thence north westwardly, past the home of Dan F. Westerfield, near and south of the present Fletcher Post Office, through the farm of Campbell Smith, south of Camp Ground, to and past Raccoon Spring, on the farm of Hugh Elliott (deeds on record in the Laurel County Courthouse definitely identity the spring on the Elliott farm as Raccoon Spring, from Anna Black to Hugh Elliott, J.K. Lewis to Anna Black, and others). From thence north westwardly to the present Fariston, thence north westwardly to Defeated Camp (Levi Jackson State Park), from thence north westwardly across Little Laurel River to the London Courthouse, thence northeast in the vicinity of the old Bill Lovelace farm through the land recently owned by Elmer Hale to the top of the hill; thence down McFarland Branch (site of McFarland's defeat) to Big Raccoon Creek and northwest to Little Raccoon about the Feltner farm, by Mt. Pleasant, and across; thence northwest to Wood's Blockhouse (Hazelpatch); thence over Hazelpatch Creek and across  country to the headwaters of Parker's Creek, and down the same to the Rockcastle River and across.

George Disney, 84 years of age and George Owens, 75 years of age (1938) remember seeing trees along Boone's route, which they were told, were blazed by him and members of his party.  According to these gentlemen 

STATIONS ON THE BOONE TRACE
BETWEEN CUMBERLAND GAP AND CRAB ORCHARD

 

The above table of distances between points on the Boone Trace was taken from The Wilderness Road to Kentucky, by Wm. Allen Pusey.

Various names have been applied to the Boone Trace. In Claiborne County Tennessee, deeds, it is called the "Kentucky Path." Colonel Arthur Campbell, called the "father of Washington County", writes of it that way. In Lincoln County, Kentucky, deeds, it is referred to as "Trace leading from Kentucky to the Blockhouse" (the blockhouse was located near Big Moccasin Gap just across the Virginia line in Tennessee) and "trace that leads from Kentucky through the Wilderness to the Settlement of Holston". Knox County surveyors and lawyers called it the "Old Wilderness Road" and the "Old Trace".